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Asian Dining Room

Room updated Feb 27, 2004

Over the years, I've accumulated an awful lot of Hindu statuary and icons. Having a name like Shiva tends to open doors for that. So when I decided it was time to open up our dining area to allow for entertaining, and Asian theme seemed the way to go.

The dining room joins the Bohemian living room, but is divided in part by a bookshelf partition. Seeing as the color scheme in there is the three colors on the left side of red on the standard color wheel, this room went for the three colors on the right of red.

This room is far from completed, but enough is done to make it presentable.

One thing worth a mention here is that the orange color scheme was not my idea. I actually loathe the color orange. However, my husband made a good point about how I should learn to work with all colors, not just the ones I happen to prefer.

But I was not about to paint the walls orange, so I ended up using it as the main textile color for this room.

And just a quick note, the purple ceiling was changed to black since these photos were taken.

Fun with arts and crafts... the woven hemp and beaded tassel drapes for the backs of the chairs were made by the hands of yours truly. My cats really thought it was a good idea too.

The table and chair set is beautiful, good sturdy carved wood furniture. But the chair backs were a little plain and just needed something to tie them in with the decor.

The pillow cushions for four of the chairs were bought because I really liked the cheetah pattern. On the header chairs, I made cushions from the same leopard-print faux fur that can be seen on the table.

Beneath the leopard fur runner, just a plain orange tablecloth.

Here's a few better pictures of the table set up. See what I mean about the chair backs?

Although the room has an Asian theme, there are a few hints of Europe scattered around as well. A lot of the table decor came from Italy and Spain, but the colors worked too well for the room.

Of course, with as much Indian influence in this room, there could only be orange and yellow cardamoms in the floral arrangement.

The floor has since been replaced with a reddish stone-like floor tile, similar to Moroccan slate.

This is what is commonly referred to as "cheating".

Basically, the cabinet and buffet were built in and unable to be moved without the aid of a crowbar, so I figured it'd be easier to just disguise it.

I ran plain orange curtains around the buffet counter area, and then strung some interesting-looking beads together to dangle from the top hem.

At the bottom are some various Hindu icons and some heavy brass statues. They are strategically placed there so that my ferrets can't get into the bottom cabinets.

Painting black lacquer ... this was fun. I ended up spraying this whole cabinet down with adhesive before painting on a textured paint to change it from black to orange. Then sealed it with a few coats and hoped for the best.

So far it's been holding up beyond my wildest dreams.

The gold stamping was done with sponges shaped in popular Asian yantras.

Below are two paintings I did years ago that found a home in the room.

Kali - Hindu Goddess of Destruction.

Siva the Destroyer - Hindu god of destruction.